The present invention relates to an animal litter collector and more particularly pertains to a disposable animal litter collector for picking up and holding the litter for disposal after use.
In many jurisdictions, pet owners are statutorily required to collect litter of their pets as soon as pet litter is deposited on streets in city areas. To avoid penalty of fines, pet owners are generally willing to collect and dispose litter left by their pets in public areas. For sanitary purposes and aesthetic considerations, pet owners also need to clean up litter in their own private areas. These needs are particularly notorious for dog owners living in the cities as it is common for them to take their dogs out for a walk everyday in public areas such as sidewalks, parks or even beaches. The most basic tool that a dog owner has to bring along is waste newspaper or a used bag which the dog owner can use to pick up the dog's litter. Though the dog owner's hands may not touch the litter directly, most dog owners find the act disgusting. Some dog owners use small implements such as small shovels, but unless these implements are disposable, subsequent cleaning up of the implements remains to be distasteful.
There are a number of disposable means to assist dog owners to clean up after their dogs. Most of them require complicated assembly or folding before use. Therefore, one may see a dog owner who has to hurriedly attach a handle to a base to form a shovel in order to clean up the litter before his dog runs away. One may also see a dog owner who spends time to fold a cardboard paper into its predetermined shape such as a box or a prism as if he is doing a handicraft in order to clean up the litter for disposal. There are some other disposable means in the marketplace which are simple in construction and convenient to carry. They are usually made of cardboard paper with pressed lines so that they can be easily folded into a shovel. A dog owner can use the shovel to clean up the litter and put the whole thing into a bag for disposal. It is simple and easy.
However, this kind of disposable means also has defects. A dog owner has to remember to bring a disposal bag with him in order to complete the disposal process. If the dog owner forgets to bring a bag or does not have one, he will have to carry the litter with the disposal shovel for a while before it can be disposed into a rubbish bin. Further, it is not hygienic to simply dispose the litter into a rubbish bin without putting it into a bag first. Moreover, the dog owner also has to choose a suitable bag carefully. If the bag is too small, it cannot hold the shovel with the litter all together. If the bag is too large, it will not be compact in size and it may take time to fold and unfold the bag. Furthermore, the most commonly available bags are probably plastic bags from supermarkets or convenience stores. These bags are usually light in color and transparent to some degree. Therefore, it remains to be disgusting to carry the litter around with such a see-through plastic bag.